AFP
Istanbul
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu hosted yesterday the biggest rally yet of Turkey’s legislative election campaign, as the ruling party battles to maintain its total dominance of politics.
Tens of thousands of people filled the gigantic outdoor area in the Maltepe district of Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara to hear Davutoglu, who said only the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) could be trusted with Turkey’s future in the June 7 polls.
“Dear Istanbul are you with us? Are you behind us?” shouted Davutoglu, his voice hoarse from campaigning.
“On June 7, is there going to be a new Turkey?” he said, as the crowds roared their approval.
“They (the opposition) talk. The AKP acts,” he said, repeating his party’s main election slogan.
Davutoglu, the former foreign minister, became premier and AKP leader when Recep Tayyip Erdogan moved to the presidency in August last year after over a decade as prime minister.
He is under huge pressure to show his political mettle in the polls, the first election battle where the AKP has not been led by Erdogan since it first came to power in 2002.
Criticised by some for lacking Erdogan’s charisma, Davutoglu arrived in rock star-style fashion, circling the crowds in his helicopter before landing nearby.
“We are watching history, we are writing history,” Davutoglu said in live comments from the helicopter before landing.
Speaking in front of a giant picture of himself under the slogan “Stronger Together”, Davutoglu tried to connect with the crowds by speaking from a long catwalk platform that jutted out from the stage, throwing out flowers.
Erdogan also spoke earlier to a rally of thousands in the central Anatolian city of Kayseri, saying that the elections marked a “crossroads” for Turkey.
The supposedly apolitical Turkish head of state is in theory barred from election campaigning and the opposition has accused Erdogan of blatantly violating the constitution.
But Erdogan again denied this was the case, saying that he was merely “on the side of the people”.
And last week Turkey’s election board rejected accusations that Erdogan violated the constitution by publicly backing the ruling AK party ahead of June polls, though two members opposed the ruling in a rare sign of dissent.
Opposition parties including the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party filed accusations this month with the Supreme Election Board (YSK) that Erdogan had failed in his obligation as president to stay above party politics.

Flower power: Turkey voters to get 40mn flowers
Perhaps they hope that the fragrant smells and blooming petals will be transformed into instant electoral success.
But the penchant of Turkey’s politicians for throwing flowers into crowds at rallies has given a huge boost to the domestic flower industry, which expects to deliver 40mn flowers in the run-up to June 7 legislative polls, an association chief said yesterday.
“The interest in cut flowers on the part of politicians has increased in recent years,” said the head of the central Anatolian plant producers association, Osman Bagdatlioglu.
“We expect to deliver this year 40mn flowers to politicians for voters,” he told the official Anatolia news agency.
He said that practice of handing out flowers dates back just five or six years in Turkey.
It has become hugely prominent in the campaign for the June 7 legislative elections, with leaders such as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his wife Sare throwing flowers into the crowds at the start and end of every political rally.
But the habit is far from restricted to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), with main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu also hurling flowers into the crowds.
Bagdatlioglu said that the flowers largely came from export surplus and were cultivated in Yalova in northwestern Turkey, Izmir in the west and Antalya on the southern coast.
“We don’t see sending the flowers to politics as a financial gain. The flower as symbol of power, peace and love in political meetings makes great sense,” he said.